Monday, August 15, 2016

Sigh. Welp, another month has gone by and another blog has sat un-updated.

I guess that's life. I do love blogging, but the amount of work that goes into formatting photos, coming up with comments and just posting can sometime deter my interest. Add the fact that I have TWO NEW JOBS and well, you get the point.

But seriously guys, I have Two New Jobs! I feel like my life as an artist is finally going places.

Job 1) Teaching Middle and High School Art at my Local Catholic School. Getting this job was a huge step for me, because up until now I've only taught after school. Being in charge of an actual classroom, with actual students and attendance and grades is a crazy new world. I've had two weeks of inservice and classes started today and so far so good.

Job 2) Because the teaching is part time (only 3 sessions) I still can't fully afford to not have a second job. I had planned to stay nights at the cafe, but then an opportunity came up and, as an artist, I couldn't say no. I am now working 3 nights and Saturdays at the local frame shop in downtown. Framing art and meeting people. This is actually a huge deal for me, because my life goal is to own my own business/gallery/yarn shop someday.

Whew ok now that that is off my chest, let me do some brief fill-ins on fiber-world!

First up is Texas Sea Glass, my gorgeous lace summer cowl. It took longer than I would have liked, but that was because of Tour de Fleece, so it's all good. I also have over half a skein of the Anzula Yarn left, hmmm what shall I make?

Talking about Tour de Fleece, I managed to get two skeins done. The first one I'm sharing I actually didn't finish until after the tour, but that's because life got busy then and I was trying to go really thin. While I ended up with consistency issues in thinness, I did create a gorgeous Navajo Plied yarn. I need to practice that as well though, it got really springy.

The second TdF skein is one I had started before the tour and was too lazy to work on. One ply dyed Alpaca with 1 ply of a dark plum merino. On the Merio I also held some sparkle at various points to give it a nice pop. I really like this yarn and whatever she becomes will be gorgeous.

I have an art opening in under a month and a million things to do for it. I stopped painting about a month ago so that I could focus on teacher in-service and preparing for my show. The first one has happened, the second, not so much.

Here's the last large painting I have done. It's one of my favorites :)

Rusted Morning Shore - color is a bit off here.

The above painting leads well into my final topic: I'm publishing a book! Yea!!! So I have spent a long time the last few months working on this beautiful 50 page book that contains most of my paintings paired with poetry. I'm selling them for $15, and they'll be released at the beginning of September. BUT if you want to pre-order, I'll give you the book , a special gift and free shipping for that price right now. This offer is only good until August 20, so take advantage while you can!

Send money via paypal to the above address or comment on here and I'll send you an invoice.

Inspirations:

Art: I saw this artist at my favorite gallery last month and it opened my eyes to so many new artistic experiences. Rahileh Rokhsari is amazing!

Knitting: So as a new teacher, I need more professional clothes and thus time to knit more sweaters! While I decided on the Canted Pullover, a few other contenders (all from magazines I own) were: Hipsemantic , Caldwell and Haubergeon

Food: Local food is the name of the game around here. This week I'm going to try making stuffed patty pan squash with peppers and black bean!Life: What can I say. Life is wonderfully crazy. I wouldn't change a thing.